Oscar Romero was kneeling, praying in the altar, after delivering a potent homily – while celebrating Mass in San Salvador pauper’s hospital chapel – amongst the maimed victims of the military violence, the landless peasants and their families.
A loving shepherd amongst his flock…
At that moment, a single bullet shot through his heart.
Romero had preached the Gospel of liberation for all of five years, and he had called for the Salvadoran military officers and soldiers to obey God’s command and to stop the killings, the rapes and to refrain from carrying out the repression of the people of El Salvador.
Romero became a symbol of the struggle for human rights and continues to be a force for the liberators of the 20th Century and beyond…
On March 24, 1980, he was the Roman Catholic Archbishop of San Salvador, on the 25th he was a legend… and today he is an inspiration.
But what most people don’t know is that he spoke of sustainable agriculture in a country whose environmental devastation is so vast that the earth cannot sustain the people any longer.
He had another message too and he spoke eloquently about the Environment.
Now more than thirty years ago – he spoke – of the need to reforest the country to avoid the loss of topsoil, and loss of the water and thus prevent the recurring catastrophic earthquakes of a parched land.
He advocated sustainable agriculture with the mission of redistribution of the land to the peasants – the ones who till the land – away from the monoculture practises of the day.
Because it was the industrial agribusiness ravaging the earth and reducing it’s water table through intense water waste… and reducing the people to simple animal value as beasts of burden. And it was this business – the United States through Ronald Reagan’s support for the Junta – was propping up with loads of foreign and military aid… and weapons with advisers to repress the peoples.
Still, Romero spoke very eloquently about the environment. And that is what we remember today in conjunction with his work for human rights and the Liberation Theology. Because the sustainable Environment and Human Rights are together as one. Part and parcel of our lives…
You can’t have one without the other.
They are fully interconnected and – on the final analysis – the Liberation of the Environment, goes through the Liberation of the people.
Three simple things for all human Beings: Clean Air, fresh Water and adequate Food for all, is the one recipe to guide us towards a sustainable planet.
For to provide this to all we have no other option but to work sustainably… on the long term.
So for me Romero, was a man well ahead of his time – or better yet – the man right for the times.
Yours,
Pano
PS:
Oscar Romero’s assassin was educated at the school of the Americas in the state of Georgia in the United States and he went on to participate in the El Mozote Massacre of 900 civilians a year later and today, he is a free man living in the United States.
And it is the many crimes against the Environment and our addiction to fossil fuels that causes the warming planet to deny a simple livelihood to many peoples across this earth…
And while we are walking freely – going about our business, do we ever think – of the other half of human beings sharing our planet?
